Fayetteville  As of 2013, over five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. As that number climbs higher every year, not many people have the time or are educated on how to take care of family members living with Alzheimer’s. And that’s where Senior Home Care Solutions steps in – for the last three years, they’ve been providing personalized care to seniors all across the Syracuse area to help ensure that their clients can live in their own homes for as long as possible.

Sheila Ohstrom started SHCS about three years ago after going through her own experiences with caring for her family members. Although her services are available to anyone who needs them, she said she’s become well known for her Alzheimer’s care. Often, she will get a call from a son or daughter who is struggling to find time to give their parents the attention and care that they need. Ohstrom said that in this day and age, it’s becoming harder for some children to keep their full time jobs, raise their own children and care for their parents at the same time.

“It’s really hard for people to keep their jobs and be able to leave and take their parents to their appointments three to four times a month,” she said. “It’s hard to fit in all that in-between things like doctor’s appointments and grocery shopping. So having someone to lift that burden off is sometimes all they need.”

SHCS employees are responsible for doing the little things, including: cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, and driving to doctor’s appointments. Ohstrom said that every client’s needs are different and that her employees have even trimmed hedges, cleaned out gutters and fixed leaky faucets. She has one client who needs help 18 hours and day, seven days a week and another who she checks in on once a week. Her work depends on what the client needs.